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So there’s a sale on now, but we thought maybe you’d notice it more if we told you along with a dick pic. So here’s Efe B from Turkey, with a previously unpublished image. See the rest and read his story in our Elska Istanbul edition.

To help celebrate the release of our second six Elska editions, we have put together a new collection of 21 frameable postcard prints, taken from our journeys in Cardiff, Toronto, Yokohama, Mumbai, Providence, and Brussels.

We also have six new exclusive signed art prints available for collectors and big fans of Elska.

I can’t believe we’ve been doing this for over a year and a half. We show up in some city, meet a bunch of local boys and photograph them in their homes and on their streets. Then each writes a story for us, and their images and texts are put together in this thing we call Elska Magazine. Simple!

So why India? Well, after we did our first issue in Asia about a year ago, we heard a lot about how few [East] Asian men are seen in LGBT media. It’s true, but then we realised that South Asian men are even less visible, so we felt challenged to sort this out! Plus India seemed like a fascinating way to spend a couple of weeks, so why not?

Ten issues, ten cities so far… Lviv, Berlin, Reykjavík, Lisbon, Taipei, Istanbul, Cardiff, Toronto, Yokohama, Mumbai… it reads like a quirky fashion store window or an American Apparel bag (RIP)! Our next edition will be made in a US city, then in a European one, then in a Middle Eastern one… then who knows? Nowhere is off the table, and any guy is welcome on our pages, whether he’s an 18 year old fit white boy (thinking of Sasha K from Lviv) or a 73 year old B&B owner into public nudity (thinking of Richard W from Toronto). Authenticity is the goal here, not selling copies (though we’d really really like you to buy some)!

So please do pick up a copy of Elska Magazine sometime (or maybe collect them all). Then meet the boys on our pages, get to know them and their cities, and show us some support. There’s no ads, there’s no agenda, just local boys and local stories. Cheers!

It also marks the first issue of the second Elska year, having released our first edition, Issue (01) Lviv (Ukraine), exactly one year ago. As a UK-based publication, it was great to finally set an issue in Britain, but on an island(s) so full of big cities, it was so hard to choose which one to focus on. In the end I went for the Welsh capital for three reasons: 1) I’d never been to Wales so it had the most to discover; 2) my partner is half Welsh and I was always curious to see his roots; 3) I love the local accent, which kinda even turns me on!

We met a lot of ‘local boys’ in Cardiff, so many that this became the hardest issue ever to edit down. In the end it’s the longest edition too, at 164 pages, and features sixteen photospreads, each accompanied by a story. Most wrote in English as it’s the native tongue of 80% of Cardiffians, but a few wrote in Welsh (Ceri V, Orrie M, and Dave R) and one even in Catalan (that’s Oliver D, a postgraduate student at the university). Plus, seeing as Brexit just happened before we shot, the impact of this is reflected in a few of their stories.

The Cardiff issue, besides being the biggest, is also the most diverse in terms of body type and age. As usual, we just turn up in a city, post a load of messages on social media and photograph everyone who responds and wants to be in the issue. There’s no scouting for particular guys or types of guys. Rather it’s a spontaneous and authentic operation. This usually results in more diversity than the average gay mag, but Cardiff took the cake! Beyond the ‘textbook-hot’ muscle boys, there’s skinny guys, thicker guys, and definitely a rugby player or two, as you might expect from Wales. But most striking of all is the age spread – from 19 (that’s Jon D) up to 75 (that’s Bruce B).

If you haven’t yet seen the full Elska experience, I hope you’ll pick up a copy and join us for our latest journey. Head to the main site, http://www.elskamagazine.com, to buy one, to see a list of stockists, or to subscribe to a year of Elska.